In the Old Testament God first gained a people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Eventually, that people became the nation of Israel, which was called a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). That people, that nation, was a type of the church. In Acts 7:38 Stephen even refers to the people of Israel as “the assembly in the wilderness,” using the word ekklesia, the word for “church” in the New Testament. This is a further indication that the children of Israel are a type of the church.
The entire history of the nation of Israel is a full type, an all-inclusive type, of the church. The nation of Israel began with the exodus. The children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt, but through the lamb of the Passover they were redeemed out from Pharaoh’s usurpation. They made their exodus from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, entered the wilderness, and came to Mount Sinai, and there they built the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth. Eventually, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan and entered into Canaan, the good land. After conquering the people and gaining the land, they built the temple. The time immediately after the building of the temple was a golden time. However, that golden time did not last very long. Mainly due to the failure of Solomon, the temple was destroyed, and the children of Israel were taken to Babylon as captives. The Babylonian army not only destroyed Jerusalem with its temple but also brought the utensils of the temple to Babylon and put them into idol temples. What a shame! The people of Israel remained in Babylon for seventy years.
Spiritually speaking, the church, due to its degradation, has been in captivity. God’s people have been divided, scattered, and carried away from the proper ground of unity to a wrong ground. In the Old Testament type, the children of Israel were centered around Jerusalem, but later they were scattered and carried away to many places, in particular, to Babylon. This portrays the situation among many of today’s Christians. In a very real sense, the believers today are more scattered than the children of Israel were. Therefore, we need to be recovered. We need not only revival but also recovery.
As typified by the latter part of the history of the children of Israel, the recovery is from Babylon-the capturing and divisive ground (Ezra 1:11). For the children of Israel to be recovered meant for them to be brought back to Jerusalem from Babylon. Negatively, to be recovered means to be brought out of Babylon; positively, it means to be brought up to Jerusalem. Although the Scriptures reveal that some of the people of Israel were taken captive to Syria and others to Egypt, the majority of them were taken captive to Babylon. Babylon was the main place of their captivity. Hence, in type the meaning of Jerusalem is the ground of unity, and the meaning of Babylon is division, scattering, and captivity. To be recovered out of Babylon is to be recovered out of division, and to be recovered to Jerusalem means to be recovered back to the original ground of unity.
In the Old Testament, the temple was destroyed, and all its vessels were carried away to Babylon and placed in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar’s idols. This signifies that at a certain time the entire church was destroyed by the “Babylonians,” who carried away the contents of the temple to Babylon and placed them in the temple of their idols. At a certain time in church history, Babylonianism came into the church, destroyed it, and carried away its contents. If you study church history, you will see that this was truly the situation. Therefore, in Revelation 17 the apostate church is called Babylon the Great, the great prostitute.
In its degradation the church was captured and held in the captivity of Babylon the Great. In Revelation 18 Babylon refers to the city of Rome. In a figure of speech, John, the writer of Revelation, called Rome “Babylon the Great.” Eventually, the organized church under the pope was called the Roman Church. This Roman Church in Revelation 17 is given by the Lord the title “Babylon the Great, The Mother of the Prostitutes and the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5). This expression corresponds to the use of the word Babylon in Old Testament times. In those times God’s people were carried away to Babylon and kept in captivity there. In the New Testament, with the fulfillment of the type, the principle is the same: the church, God’s chosen people, eventually were held in the captivity of Babylon the Great. This means that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament God’s people were held captive in Babylon.
If we see this, we shall have a clear view, an overall view, concerning the degradation of the church and the recovery of the church. The captivity of the children of Israel was due to their degradation. Because of their degradation, they were carried away to captivity in Babylon. The church also became degraded and eventually was brought into captivity by Babylon the great, Christendom, which is a prostitute in the eyes of the holy God. The recovery of the church, therefore, involves a return from the capturing and divisive ground signified by Babylon.
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